Happy 1st birthday Brookie!!!!!

Just a year ago we had a sweet little baby and was able to hold her in our arms without our arms completely falling off after 10 minutes....now we have a big one year old and she is getting bigger every day!! We go tomorrow for her well-child checkup and to get Aidan his 5-year shots. Should be a fun day.

We started off her birthday by working at 6am....UGH!!! I was hoping that her birthday would fall on a day I didn't work but we still had a wonderful time seeing the kids!! Then the kids spent time with Grandma and Grandpa so that I could go to Physical Therapy for my wrist. We took Aidan to school, visited Nana, picked Aidan up from school after we napped for awhile, walked around the school for awhile. We then headed to Bellevue to Toys R Us. She freaked out in the baby aisle and didn't understand why I wouldn't take the baby out.

We went home and got home around 5pm. Brookie, Aidan and I all napped until sometime around 7-7:30pm. We got up and went got gas in the car, which killed just enough time for John to come home and change after work. We then headed to Red Robin for a family dinner with the 4 of us. After dinner (singing and all!!) we hit up Target for a few things that we needed. Then it was home for cuddle time and bedtime. It was a busy weekend ahead of us!

Saturday we went to a birthday party and then came home and got ready for Brookie's party with extended family on Sunday. Sunday we had a huge meal at my moms of spaghetti (thanks Andrea for the recipe!!! It was FABULOUS!!!) salad, bread, and cake!!! SO fun. It was a wonderful way to celebrate this little blessing in our lives!! Ok, I rambled on more than I thought so I'll stop now.....Enjoy all our pictures!!!

P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S!!!

family of 3...only missing Aidan...

fresh from the oven!! So tiny!!!

our sweet angel only a few hours old, this is when she met her big brother for the first time from outside of my belly!!

This pic is WAY out of order, but she was so done at this point...

big brother brought his pillow out so that her neck wouldn't hurt when she woke up from her nap...he put it on top of her face. It was sweet that he was trying to help but I wanted her to be able to breathe...

it was 'Cat in the Hat' day at school and they made hats....so fun

walking around big brothers school after we picked him up!

first a healthy dinner....at least she ate some of her broccoli...she really wanted Daddy's fries though and that was it....

she enjoyed everyone singing to her!!

she loves ice cream

YUM!!!!!!!

lucky boy got to finish the ice cream sundae for her!

"where did the ice cream go mom??"

birthday dinner at Red Robin....

cute birthday outfit

he was so excited!!

the only present she was really interested in opening...

He was so excited that she had her birthday...he's still telling people that she just turned 1!!

Such a neat, clean girl...

That's my girl!!!

She is becoming a lot more interested in her spoon lately! So fun!

She LOVES her babies!!

Crazy hair girl!!

We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS in pictures!!!

Ok, so this is just pictures....we visited my dad on our way to Christmas eve with my FIL's side, spent Christmas morning at home, went to my mom's Christmas afternoon, spent the night at moms, went to the in-laws, spent the 26th with Ryan, his girlfriend Kim, Greg & Nina, went out with Kim and Ryan, spent the 27th at the in-laws and then back to "normal." That was Christmas weekend in a nutshell....oh and we went to the in-laws so that John could see his brother on Christmas eve at 10pm.....it was a LONG night every single night and I think we are all finally back on our sleep schedules.

A little help from the peanut gallery....

Why has it been so long since I posted last?? I am going to be better at that this year....at minimum, twice a month!! I think I can commit to that!! If I forget hit me up with a comment or shoot me an email letting me know that you would LOVE to know what is going on no matter how boring life is here. Awesome!! Thanks!!

Bbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So just a quick update....it is C-O-L-D here in the Pacific Northwest!! It was about 14 degrees when John left for work this morning. I think it was 15 degrees about 5 minutes ago when I was in our kitchen. It is getting harder and harder to stay warm these days while outside and Aidan and I are going a bit stir crazy inside. We get out when we can but its still cold.

As for Christmas stuff, we are slowly getting stuff out. Next year I swear it will be out by the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving since John is totally useless on weeknights during December. He is just working to much and to tired by the end of the day. We didn't get a thing done yesterday because we had a certain something come up for myself that we had to take care of. Everything is fine, we just got NOTHING done at home. Boo....Oh well. Anyhoo, I have to work in the AM and need to hit the hay. Just wanted to let you all know that we are F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G here in Seattle!! Weird.....

Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and I promised myself that I would post a blog....at least I am able to now although it is almost midnight and I should be in bed. We ended up at John's Aunt Joanne's house this year and had a terrific meal there and I hope to get a few recipes from her!! I am so excited about the possibility of making them at some point! We weren't there terribly long and actually had to leave while dessert was being served because we told my mom that we would be at her house by a certain point.

As of last year we decided to only go to one person's house on a holiday due to the fact that it ends up being a lot of driving around and it gets exhausting not to mention that the kids don't appreciate being in the car that much and naps are pushed to the wayside, etc. Then spend another day during the weekend following the holiday with the family we didn't get to see on the actual holiday. Did you follow?? Well that didn't happen this year at all. My grandpa from Eugene, Oregon came up to visit and was here for Thanksgiving. We never get the opportunity to go visit him in Oregon and wanted to make sure we saw him on Thanksgiving this year.

Anyhoo, we went to my mom's and got there as they were finishing dinner and about to start dessert. Mom wasn't feeling so hot (I think it was just a little bug, or possibly from the H1N1 shot she got a few days prior). She felt better the next day. We stayed for a short time at moms then went home when we realized she wasn't feeling good. It wasn't crazy although I wish we could have spent more time at both my mom's and John's aunt's house. Time always flies when you are having fun!!

I ended up getting up early and hitting the sales at Kohl's on Black Friday morning, got some good deals, came home and fell asleep for awhile. We had a fun day and hit up a few more deals before heading home to wait for John to get home from work. Saturday was full of craziness cleaning and preparing our apartment for Christmas decorations!! I can't wait to decorate and wish I could have brought the decorations over myself, but they don't fit in my car with the kids in it.....

We are planning on decorating next weekend and hopefully getting our FIRST REAL Christmas tree!! I am SO excited!! We are so excited to decorate and Aidna asks daily when we are. Now if he would only clean up so that we can.....So with all that being said I should get my beauty rest so that I can get some more organizing done tomorrow. It's my "home" day tomorrow and I get to do a TON of chores.....sooooo look for my blog about the new tree and decorating that we will do next weekend.....it will be a BUSY BUSY weekend but I think it will be a great one. Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season!!

Going Private.....

So, FYI.....I have been getting within the last 2 days some pretty disturbing messages/comments. I am thinking that I might be going private soon. I'll keep you updated!

Oops....been awhile!

Wow, I've been really slacking in the blogging category. I have had a ton on my plate this year and honestly, wish I never took on the last thing I did. Had I never tackled it I wouldn't have met a bunch of fun people, but it is more work than my other "jobs" put together. Not that I'm not up for a challenge, but when you have 3 coordinating jobs, and a nanny job on top of being a wife and mommy, you have to be choosy. Anyhoo, I'm possibly going to a baby shower today. Not so sure if I will go yet. Depends on if anything gets done around this house. John was home yesterday "cleaning" which consisted of watching Slumdog Millionaire and eating leftover pizza. Today he is taking Aid and heading to my mom's to pick up the pile of leaves that they collected a few weeks back. They might even rake more!! So who knows what I will do. I really feel like I should stay and clean because as things go right now, we aren't decorating for Christmas. There is to much clutter to even think about it. We'll see though. I might just get away and take the break. I'll update very soon with pics and everything that has been going on. Possibly tonight after the kids are in bed and I'm watching my movie!!